Dental Insurance and Dental Discount Plans
Dental Insurance Plans
Here are some important facts you should know when deciding on dental insurance for you and your family. Normally Dental insurance is obtained as part of a business Group Dental Plan through an employer, association or a union health plan. Dental insurance plans usually are described as either indemnity (fee-for-service) or managed care. Indemnity and managed care plans differ in their basic approach. Put broadly, the major differences concern choice 
of providers, out-of-pocket costs for covered services, and how bills are paid. Usually, indemnity plans offer more choice of dentists than managed care plans.
Indemnity plans pay their share of the costs of a service only after they receive a bill. Managed care plans have agreements with certain dentists to give a range of services to plan members at reduced cost. In general, you will have less paperwork and lower out-of-pocket costs if you select a managed care-type plan and a broader choice of dentists if you select an indemnity-type plan.
Managed care plans are Dental PPOs, POSs, and Dental HMOs (DHMOs).
A Dental PPO (Preferred Provider Organization) provides dental care to its members through a network of dentists who offer discounted fees to its plan members. You can typically use dentists out of the PPO’s network, but you will only be reimbursed the discounted fee for the services rendered – you will need to pay any additional amount yourself.
A DHMO (Dental Health Maintenance Organization) provides you dental services through a network of providers in exchange for some form of prepayment. If you use a dentist out of the established network of providers, you may be responsible for paying the entire bill.
A Dental POS (Point of Service) plan allows a member to use either a DHMO network dentist or to seek care from a dentist not in the HMO network. Members choose in-network care or out-of-network care at the time they make their dental appointment and usually incur higher out-of-pocket costs for out-of-network care.
Dental Discount Plans
Dental Plan – Save on dental services. Members will save on almost all dental care expenses through one of the largest, independent network of dental providers nationwide. Simply present the membership card to any one of the more than 24,000 providers (including specialists, where available) to receive discounted rates on dental procedures.
The discount program is designed to save money not only on routine and preventive care, but also on more extensive treatments such as fillings, crowns, root canals, dentures, bridges, oral surgery and more! Even orthodontics and cosmetic dentistry services are discounted.
